![]() This calls for a different style of orchestration and melodic composition, which the player finds compelling and adaptive to the story in a unique way that is emotion-driven as opposed to action-driven. With an adventure game like Syberia, the focus is more on creating the emotional aspect solely and not so much harping on the tension and action. Inon Zur: These games call for a different approach compared to more action-driven games, where you have to create a more adrenaline-pumping score that drives and motivates the player forward with the right rhythm and gusto of energy. What do you find to be the greatest challenge when composing for slower, narrative-driven games like these? You recently composed the entire score to Syberia: The World Before, with digital and vinyl versions of the soundtrack published in the past year. RPGFan: The Syberia franchise is well-loved by many, especially adventure game enthusiasts. ![]() You don’t want to do it all the time, so that when the appropriate time comes it can be a significant game changer for a score, to create a major emotional shift and show the importance of a particular scene. However, it’s about choosing the right place. With Dragon Age, for instance, I felt at some point we needed a break from the instrumental music and to add more of a human touch and voice, whereby I decided to feature a song inside the score. RPGFan: What is the process for incorporating vocals into your songs that use them? So when I need to describe a story or particular emotion, I will choose the instrument that I think best describes or is most associated with this specific emotion or part of the story. ![]() This is just the nature of our ears after hearing so much classical music and music for film, we tend to relate certain instruments with certain feelings and I’m using this knowledge to my advantage when selecting the instrumentation. When we hear French horns, automatically we think about something heroic. For example, with an English horn, we automatically think of something somber. Like when we see colours or feel emotions, the orchestral palette will impart or describe it with different tones. Inon Zur: The orchestra, like any other musical palette, has a natural affinity for describing different emotions, allowing our imagination to connect to a story. RPGFan: How do you decide what instrumentation and tone fit a given game? It doesn’t matter if I wrote it or somebody else: it’s still about finding the right balance between bringing familiar sounds to the player to provide a connection with the previous chapter and embarking on a new musical journey that branches out into a new experience that connects us with the new story. Inon Zur: It’s always challenging to take on an existing franchise that has a recognizable or even iconic score and continue its next chapter. RPGFan: Having worked on other established franchises ( Fallout, Lineage, The Lord of the Rings, Prince of Persia), have you felt that same pressure since, and do you still permit yourself to take a game’s existing soundscape in new directions? Even as Inon Zur prepares for this exciting performance, he managed to take time to talk to us about Syberia: The World Before, his many past works, his insights on composing for games of different genres, and his thoughts on the past decade’s vinyl revival. As of this interview’s posting, tickets are still available. The concert, entitled Suite From Syberia: The World Before and other works by Inon Zur, will take place on November 20th at The Soraya’s Great Hall. Later this month, Inon Zur’s works will be performed at The Soraya (Los Angeles) by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony, featuring pianist Emily Bear, vocalist Jillian Aversa, and a piano medley of Fallout music performed by Zur himself. He has worked on major titles within franchises such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Dragon Age and has come to define the soundscape of one especially interesting adventure game series: Syberia. In the past two decades, Inon Zur has made a reputation as a strong, reliable, and innovative composer in the game music industry.
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